Five questions to ask your money manager

By Investor's Report Card · October 2, 2026

Your yearly review with your advisor is a good time to get clear answers. These five questions are simple, fair to ask, and hard to answer vaguely.

1. What has my account returned after all fees, compared with a fair benchmark?

Ask for the return over one, three and five years and since the account opened, after every fee, and what it's being compared with. A good answer has numbers on both sides. "We had a good year" is not an answer.

2. What benchmark fits how my money is invested, and why?

An account that's mostly stocks should be compared with a stock index such as the S&P 500. A mix of stocks and bonds should be compared with a similar mix of indexes. Agree on the benchmark up front, so it doesn't change to whichever one looks best.

3. What do I pay in total each year, in dollars?

Add up the advisory fee, the expense ratios of the funds you own, and any trading or account fees. Ask for the total in dollars, not just percentages. Fund expense ratios never show up as a charge on your statement, so they're easy to miss.

4. How are you paid, and are you a fiduciary on my whole account?

Some advisors charge a flat or percentage fee. Some earn commissions on products they sell. Some do both. A fiduciary must put your interests first. Your advisor's firm must give you a short Client Relationship Summary (Form CRS) that explains its services, fees and conflicts of interest. Ask for it if you don't have it.

5. What would make you change course, and what's the plan if markets fall 30%?

This shows whether there's a real plan behind your portfolio, and how your advisor will act in a bad year, when advice matters most.

Check the record yourself

You can look up any broker or advisor's background, licenses and any disciplinary history for free on FINRA BrokerCheck and the SEC's Investment Adviser Public Disclosure site. And you don't have to rely on your advisor's own report for question 1: Investor's Report Card works out your account's real return from your statements and shows it next to the market.

Sources

Form CRS (Client Relationship Summary), Investor.gov, U.S. SEC
BrokerCheck, FINRA
Investment Adviser Public Disclosure, U.S. SEC

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This article is general information, not investment advice. Investor's Report Card is not a registered investment advisor and doesn't recommend any investment. Past performance doesn't guarantee future results.